REIMR - A Process for Utilizing Liquid Rocket Propulsion- Oriented ‘Lessons Learned’ to Mitigate Development Risk in Nuclear Thermal Propulsion

This paper is a summary overview of a study conducted at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (NASAMSFC) during the initial phases of the Space Launch Initiative (SLI) program to evaluate a large number of technical problems associated with the design, development, test, evaluation and operation of several major liquid propellant rocket engine systems (i.e., SSME, Fastrac, J-2, F-I). One of the primary results of this study was the identification of the “Fundamental Root Causes” that enabled the technical problems to manifest, and practices that can be implemented to prevent them from recumng in future propulsion system development efforts, such as that which is currently envisioned in the field of nuclear thermal propulsion (NTF’). This paper will discus the Fundamental Root Causes, cite some examples of how the technical problems arose from them, and provide a discussion of how they can be mitigated or avoided in t h ~ , development of an NTP system.